THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Too much money at stake for owners, players to fight for too long

It’s too frustrating to be funny, but …

Negotiators for Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association might at least have given us a laugh.

Instead of sitting down again to make unreasonable demands of each other on Tuesday, they could have waited until this morning.

Groundhog Day.

If you didn’t see the movie of that same name, the premise is that Bill Murray — as a grumpy TV reporter — gets assigned to do a story on the world’s most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil.

Instead of getting quickly in and out of that Pennsylvania village, however, Murray winds up reliving the same day over and over.

Sigh …

Groundhog Day would be perfect for these baseball talks.

Most fans are bored to tears with trying to understand the arguments and insults that MLB owners and players are throwing at each other.

What ordinary folk DO know is that spring training was supposed to start in a couple of weeks, and there’s virtually no chance that’s going to happen.

AS FOR Opening Day on March 31 …


Probably hopeless there, too, unless both sides suddenly come to realize that everyone in America hates them — and there are stunning breakthroughs in a few glorious days.


But don’t count on it.

I’m not going to try explaining all the various issues in this fight, but a quick rundown would involve minimum salaries, arbitration years, service time manipulation, changing the luxury tax to avoid tanking, yada, yada.

Believe it or not, the owners and players actually have given a little ground on a couple of issues.

However, full agreement is a long, long way off.

To give you an idea of how far apart these sides remain philosophically, super-agent Scott Boras insists that players deserve a fair share of what owners earn from their ballclubs.

That doesn’t sound far-fetched, except that Boras isn’t just talking about revenue — he’s including the actual increasing value of MLB franchises.

“History has told a story that the players now understand,” Boras said to Ken Rosenthal for a story in The Athletic.

“And the history is that, what you negotiate from is appreciation of franchise values and revenue increases.

“From the players’ perspective, it is about how successful this game is from those two perspectives. And they want fairness.

“Players want fairness in the success of the game.”

TO PUT Boras’ demands in perspective, since 2002 the return on MLB franchises is 669 percent.

Fat, no?

Owners, of course, claim they base payroll and expenses on revenue, which naturally took a hit during the pandemic season of 2020 — and was still recovering a year ago.


Boras doesn’t want to hear it, and claims that the owners’ offer of increased minimum salaries is barely more than a cost-of-living increase.

Around and around they go.

Groundhog Day.

Of course, this impasse — ugly as it is – will surely end, and there is going be baseball in 2022.

There is just too much money at stake.

These athletes aren’t lying in the street to call for human rights, or to end the bloodshed in Syria.

On the other side, these owners are billionaires — which is self-explanatory.

Fun fact: Did you know that a billion seconds add up to 34 years?

Anyhow …

Both sides want more money, pure and simple.

So, eventually the season will start and most games will be played.

And for what it’s worth, all this February chaos may benefit the Seattle Mariners.

I’ll explain why on Friday.

Email: [email protected]

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball which is published weekly during the season.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”